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Guilds
Guild Tips 1) Has a name that has no spelling errors and doesn't sound stupid; - This guild name is stuck to my tag. If it looks stupid, I look stupid. 2) Has a community that is active; - How many times have I joined a guild that MASS INVITES then nobody ever logs on again? Which brings me to... 3) Does not mass invite; - Besides being unprofessional and totally impersonal, it's annoying, gives you a bad reputation and rarely ever ensures that people stay with you. 4) Has guildmasters that are polite and yes, democratic. - Not many people enjoy being the member of a totalitarian regime, even if it's in a video game. 5) Raids -OR- has another fun thing to do. - Raids are a big deal after level 50 (Which I'll probably never reach), so I'd look for a guild that has something going for it. For example, an ALL AoE alchemist guild would be very cool to swarm a bunch of reds in a raid-like fashion. Guild Insights Come up with certain principals and goals then stick with them. Help your guild members out, dont think of yourself as their "master" but think of them as your customer. Delegate - You will go insane trying to help all your guild members on all their quests and other issues, and you will not have the time to do so. Start small, with a group of your friends. I know you said that you've tried this but let me put another thought into your brain. Imagin if you started your guild with yourself and three of your best friends. Then figure in one months time if they invited 1 person each you'd be up to eight members. The month after that, if each of your members attracted 1 more person you'd be up to 16... I guess to make a long story short, everytime someone joins your guild the potential growth of your guild increases because people always have friends who are not in the same guild as they are. Other advice - Choose your officers, elders and co-masters (if needed) wisely. People dont take kindly to demotion, and it's also not good to allow every person in your guild a rank - then people would expect promotion upon invite which is bad security. Finally, guild events is a pretty big deal. Give people a reason to want to join / stay in your guild. When Creating a guild... MASTERS Create a guild with three other FRIENDS! Do not make any more Masters after that! And, if possible, have three of the masters step down so there can only be ONE master! This is the ideal number of masters for a guild! He and only he can disband the guild! ELDERS You only need a few Elders in a guild. Thier functions should be to promotion/demotions, organize events, and recruitment approvals for officers. OFFICERS These guys should be the ones who recommends recruits for the guild! These are the guys who also does most of the helping of other members in the guild! A small rant about guilds Old guilds...New guilds...Great guilds... Bad guilds (The Rise and Fall of a great guild) Sing has only been in a few guilds... his first guild was with the ORIGINAL Dam Dirty Trolls, which was a fun guild! We all learned EQoA as we went along. The founders were beta playas, and everyone in the guild was helpful, etc. Towards the end, the guild morphed into a high level only guild, and DDTs did everything, killed everything that a guild could do. Sadly, some of the old vets began to get bored and drifted off to other games, and/or other alts in other guilds! That was when I started doing an alt, Redz (shaman). At low levels, I was not very loyal to any guild; I drifted from one to another. Then, around level 30 something, I began grouping on a regular basis with a certain tank buddy. He had a small guild, just a couple of friends and one family member. We, the tank and I, grouped together everyday, while we, individually, may have not been the best, we, as a tank/healer team became dam good! Peeps who joined us would always say we were the best! Because of this, those peeps began to join our guild, or rather the tank's guild. Soon, we had a good medium size guild. Game life was good in this guild, until we hit 55+. That's when the tank began to listen to idiots, saying, because he went hero path that he was not a good MT. And, because I was a shaman, I wasn't a good healer. Idiots! Well, because of this, the tank started replacing me with healers that could stack heal, and what was worse, these healers were not even in the guild! So much for loyality towards guild members and friend. About the same time, I notice a change in attitude in the tank and his certain friends, they were using terms such as; bad, I don't know, ploobs, I hate, I'm not doing that quest, gimped, etc. and seemed to always be cutting others down. Very distasteful. Because of that, and because I was being replaced by other healers, I left guild. Then I began looking for another guild, and was invited to one, only to find out that it had in it a few dishonorable members in it. It took me about 15 minutes to find that out! I have a low tolerance to peeps who, on a regular basis, cutting down someone. So, I quit that guild! I, my shaman and bard, finally got a good guild. Now, as time has passed, my friends in the guilds that I had quit began to tell me they missed me and the guild was not the same anymore! Now, these peeps are quitting the guild. Why? The old guild began recruiting just any old body, just for the sake of numbers!!! How stupid! How childish. Mistake. You should only add recruits if you've played with them, and you like them. So, like I said, the old regulars guild members were ether quitting, or thinking about it, because of all the new idiots that had been added, and because old friends had left. The guild had changed, and not for the better! I keep hearing bad things about my old guild, such as the return of a bad mouthy guild member, who had abandon the guild so he could be in a better guild. The trouble was, his bad mouthy attitude kept getting him kicked out of other guilds! hehe. I have ears; I have many contacts in many guilds, with MANY friends! I know what's going on all over Tunaria. Well now he is back in the old guild, and little does he know it, he driving the old-timers away. Now, some of us old guildies has formed a new guild, we are all old friends, and we all know how each other plays! It's a nice guild too! We help each other with our quests, etc... Soon, we'll begin to add others to the guild, but not just for numbers sake! Well, back on the subject of the old guild. I truly like my friendship with my old tank buddy, and I miss being partners with him. We made a kickass team. When a few peeps make a good core for a guild, one should always remember, the greatness of that guild was the greatness of that small core of peeps! Not one single peep in that core made the guild great, it was the combined greatness of each one! Once you remove just one peep from that core, it's done and over with, the greatness of the guild is gone, and that is so very hard to recover too! A team is a team, it may have a leader, but it's not all about the leader. Its individual members make up a good team/guild. A good guild is not "HIS GUILD" it's our guild! Once someone, even if it is the peep that founded the guild, starts saying it is HIS guild, the guild has just became a bad guild. And, if HE starts to ignore or root out the other core members then it has became a bad guild! And if the guild becomes a bad guild, then you cannot ever blame the core members for leaving! Guild Consistancy Just like teaching kindergarten, guilds need a set routine to help them go smoother. Try picking either the same night a week or the same night every month for a Raid or Quest Night. That way people can plan to show up. The constant night also allows players that play..... "another game" to show up on that day and still interact and be part of the guild, even though they don't play as much. The rules have to remain consistant too. As example: if you have an alt rule, as many guilds do, and someone adds in an extra one, tell them to pick or, if need be, chose for them. When we first started, we made everyone in the guild an officer, so the cool people we invited could invite other cool people. That worked for about 4 months, then we started getting...."questionable" members. So to help police it, we made more guildmasters. I think the final tally was 6. The main guildmaster and I got busy with life (as will happen from time to time) but felt we picked good leaders to lead in our abscence. I came back on to dissention and utter disarray. The problem was that appointed guildmasters didn't want to make any permanent changes to the guild since the Main GM's were not on. Understandable. Only main two masters now. THAT caused more dissention, but it ironed out. Now, we're relatively smooth. Lesson of the story: have criteria for promotion and a list of duties and what they can and can't do with the new title. The only other main troubles we've had is the blending of Harcore gamers with Casual Gamers and the occasional Drama King/Queen. One positive of blending mixed playing styles: the Casual Gamer gets to learn from the more experienced player through guildchat which prepares them for when they get to where the experienced player is. One Negative: This will usually cause the higher level players to leave for other guilds with people closer to their own level. Completely understandable. And, more importantly, not a whole lot you can do to fix it. Some problems can be fixed. With other problems, your hands are tied. The big thing is learning the differnce between the two. With the Drama Kings/Queens/Superegos, some people just need attention. If they're good players, find a non offensive way to let them know they're getting annoying, or find some miniscule way to placate their ego ("Yay! Tymist is here! The Day is saved!") A big thing about being a guildmaster is developing good....ummm...."Customer Service Skills" for lack of a better phrase. Your guildmates are technically your customers, so do what you can to take care of them. Keep them happy, make them laugh, and make sure, above everything else, they have fun, or they may leave you. And finally, sometimes people leave over confusion. Sometimes people leave for personal reasons. And sometimes people leave just because. One thing I try to do is leave the door open for most of them, in case they ever need a home again, even if it is for just a little while. As Tenacious D says: "Friendship is rare..." Guild Mail by Krono I often see requests for a guild mail feature so that spammers... I mean, guild mail officers, like me can send mass mails without having to type in everyone's name every time you send a mail. So, for those of you who haven't used these tricks to make guild mail more efficient, here's how I do it. Getting Started 1) One time, and one time only, you need to type everyone's name. If you are in a large guild, either ask folks which toon they would like to receive mail on, or simply use the name of the toon your guildie is on the most often. 2) (For those of you who aren't sure how it works) Names are separated by semicolons, but there is no space either before the semicolon nor after. (e.g., "Hoopla;Noober;Guildwhippingboy;..." not: "Hoopla ; Noober; Guildwhippingboy; ..." ) 3) Put your gm's (or gms') toon(s) first, followed by elders, and then officers. A good guild won't go through a rotating cast of ranked folks frequently, so putting their names first means there's a big block of names that you won't have to edit or add to very often. 4) If you are the guild mailing officer, put all of your toons' names at the end of that mail. That way, you are always at the end, and can make sure your toons are there, and if you add an alt or need to send mail to any other guildie who will help you with guild mailings, you know where you appear on the list without having to scan through the initial block of ranked names and the middle block of members' names. 5) The added benefit of putting your toons' names at the end is actually the crucial step in mass mailing. Having your name on the list ensures that, after you send the mail, both you and your gm or elders have access to the current roster, and you all can simply hit "Reply All" when you want to send a mass mail to the guild. Adding or Deleting Toons 1) When it comes time to add a new member or delete a member who has left or who has been booted, simply find their name and delete it (if you are deleting), and remember to delete the semicolon after their name, as well, so that you don't have two semi colons together (which can prevent mails from being sent). 2) If you are adding the names of new members, simply put their name immediately before your own toons' name(s) (at the end of the members' names list). Adding members in this way has the added bonus of creating a chronological list of membership in your guild. 3) Whenever you delete or add, all you need to do is send an updated guild roster message, and notify guildies they can delete the previous roster, and keep the current one you just created (should anyone need to send a mass mail in the future). Other Concerns 1) Always have people send updated info to you through game mail. If someone wants to receive mail on a different toon, for instance, ask the person to send you that information in a mail. If you're like me, someone can send you a tell, then you get busy with other stuff, and forget about the request. Having people send you requests through game mail ensures that you check mail and--since it is the same medium, rather than a tell--respond in kind via mail: essentially, you are keeping the medium of communication the same, and can make changes as you receive mail, rather than get to it later after you have "helped a guildie," "finished your quest," and so on. 2) Bugs. Sometimes, when you hit "Reply All" on a different toon than the one you originally sent a mass mail on, the name of that previous toon will disappear, and the name of the toon you ' "Reply All"ed ' on will appear twice. I don't know why, but it happens. So if you don't get a message on a toon when you know you sent a mail, remember this bug. 3) Limitations. The biggest limitation of guild mail is that we cannot "Reply All," and keep the text of the previous mail. This bites. I don't know if it's possible to change this feature, but it certainly would be nice if SOE could change it, since retyping guild rules over and over to recruits bites. Hard